AUSTIN: Hundreds of bottles of counterfeit wine, seized from the Rudy Kurniawan case, are being destroyed.
Over 500 bottles of the counterfeit wine, deemed unable to sell, will be crushed at a recycling and composting facility in Southeast Austin.
Kurniawan was convicted of fraud for selling 500 bottles of counterfeit wine claiming it was authentic and vintage. A total of 5,000 bottles of wine was taken from Kurniawan; of those bottles only 500 were counterfeit. A federal court found Kurniawan guilty in 2013 for producing and selling $30 millions worth of the counterfeit wine. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The remaining 4,711 authentic bottle of wine were auctioned off. A team in France authenticated the bottles of wine that were actually vintage.
The counterfeit wine ended up being destroyed in Texas after the wine was shipped to Houston for the auction. Workers crushed the wine bottles in Southeast Austin at the Texas Disposal Systems landfill in Creedmoor. The glass will be recycled and the wine will become compost.
“It may sound ironic that we are selling wine that belonged to a convicted wine counterfeiter,” said Assistant Program Manager Jason Martinez of the U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Division, “but we are duty-bound to recoup as much value from the sale of these authentic wines as possible to compensate those who were victims of his fraud.”
The money made from selling the authentic bottles will be given to the victims who fell prey to scam. Kurniawan was ordered by the courts to return over $28 million to the victims of his scam.
